A proposal under consideration at the Capitol would slap fines of up to $10,000 on people caught soliciting prostitutes or arranging their business but could give first-time offenders a chance to take an awareness course rather than face a conviction.

Municipal courts would be allowed under Senate Bill 85 to establish day-long, scared-straight-style programs designed to alert johns to the harsh realities of the sex trade.

A Senate committee got a taste Monday of those realities before they unanimously approved the legislation.

There are about 375 prostitution arrests a year in Denver, about 40 percent of which are for solicitation. There are an average of 223 prostitution-related investigations each year in Lakewood, according to police Detective Brent Struck.

Struck said most prostitutes he’s interviewed turned their first trick between the ages of 12 and 14, and young girls are forced to see between five and 20 clients a day, producing a profit of about $1,000 for their pimps.

“Our biggest goal is to get these kids off the street and go after these pimps and traffickers,” Struck said.

The proposed $5,000 to $10,000 fines for anyone convicted of soliciting, patronizing or arranging for a meeting with a prostitute could add resources to those efforts, according to bill sponsor and Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont.

Current guidelines allow most offenders to face a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail, though sentences are often much lower.

Shaffer took heat for the magnitude of the fines, but he said that “we need to broadcast that there are real consequences tied to this kind of behavior.”

There remain details to be hammered out, he acknowledged.

For example, people who use intimidation to coerce a person into prostitution — a crime called felony pandering — could pay as little as $5,000 and avoid the long-lasting ramifications of a felony record.

It could also be tough to tell who is a first-time offender, since not all municipal courts report arrests or convictions statewide.

And the proposed fines are far greater than the $1,000 maximum now allowed in municipal court, said Arvada presiding Municipal Court Judge George Boyle.

“I don’t know how many municipal courts are going to opt into this program,” Boyle said. “And it looks as if it would require some kind of probation. Some municipal courts already have that. Some don’t. It’s going to cost some money.”

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